Great Chart and Singleton Pre-School
Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on Friday 13th October 2023 9.15am
| Name of attendee | Name of child at Pre-school |
|---|---|
| Gemma Crompton | Georgina Crompton |
| Michelle Beerensson | Staff |
| Morgan Jones | Austin Stew |
| Lucy Page | Bonnie Morgan |
| Lauren Haseltine | Oliver Haseltine |
| Kezia Newman | Lochlan Martin |
| Tracy Gorham-Brown | Staff |
| Samantha Read | Bobby Fuggle |
| Simrat Rait | Kavan Rait |
| Sian Suddes | Aleia Field |
| Amanda Oliver | Committee |
| Trudy Ottaway | Molly Dorsett |
| Hayley Buckham | Delilah Tilley |
| Emma Kolsteren | Erin Kolsteren |
| Hayley Chamberlain | Lilly Chamberlain |
| Marcus Woronecki | Ania-Marie Woronecki |
| Jill Collins | Ania-Marie Woronecki |
| Sheraleigh Yakut | Leyla Yakut |
| Jessica Heasman | Harry Heasman |
| Amy French | Jenson French |
| Gemma Ritchie | Elliot Ritchie |
| Naomi Cheese | Iris Gregory |
| Keir Gregory | Iris Gregory |
| Leanne Mayow | Georgia Gathern |
| Lucie Pace | Ellie Pace |
| Katerina Hurry | Matthias Hurry |
Welcome: The Co-Chair, Amanda Oliver, welcomed everyone, reminded everyone of the need for confidentiality, introduced existing members of the committee and briefly described the role of the committee:
Role of the Committee: The preschool requires a committee to act as the Charity Trustees and is generally made up of parents of attending children. The committee is responsible for the overall management and smooth running of the setting. This includes recruiting, training & development of staff, as well as improving the preschool resources through fundraising activities.
Chair Report: Read by Co-Chair Amanda Oliver:
Thank you to everyone for attending this morning. Please can we remind everyone that everything discussed here this morning is confidential. If anyone needs the toilet, please use the disabled toilet. If you need to leave, then a member of staff will need to let you out.
I would like to introduce you to our current committee. I’m Amanda and Co-Chair, we also have Kezia who is co-chair, Emma is our secretary, Lucie our Treasurer, Simrat our PR guru. This year we also had Charlotte, Shahid and Jane on the committee, who are all stepping down so not here today.
So, the role of the Committee. The preschool requires a committee to act as the Charity Trustees and is generally made up of parents of attending children. The committee is responsible for the overall management and smooth running of the setting. This includes recruiting, training & development of staff, as well as improving the preschool resources through fundraising activities.
Our first year as co-chairs have actually been quite settled. We have had an amazing fundraising year. We have managed to raise £4505!! This has been via our Christmas Raffle, Easter Raffle and our Funday. Which made a welcome return since Covid. Obviously, these events wouldn’t have raised the funds the preschool need if it wasn’t for the generous support from our parents/carers and families.
This year we have had to increase staff wages due to increase of the National Living Wage. This has meant we have had to increase the fees. This was done is April 2022 and then again in September 2022, we hoped by splitting the increase this would be more manageable for our families.
The past week myself and Kezia have been sitting in with Michelle and Jane on interviews. After losing a member of staff towards the end of the last school year, we needed to replace that member of staff. Interviews have gone well. Earlier on in the year, we took on Rachel, who was a committee member, as a flexi member of staff, and she has settled in like she has always been here!
As you will hear we made a £9695.92 surplus this year, which is such good news as last year we made a loss of £2815.66.
This is why we need a committee! A committee to help with fundraising can make a huge difference to the preschool and your children who are attending. Unfortunately, the Pre-school cannot run without a committee.
If you’re interested in joining, then please do stay to the committee meeting, which is straight after the AGM. We really don’t bite and believe it or not, we are quite a friendly bunch.
Staff Report - Read by Michelle Beerensson:
The past year has been a challenging one mainly due to the amount of children we had with additional needs and the extra support given to our newer members of staff to support them with their qualifications. It does feel that we have turned a corner and this year things seem much calmer. Lisa, Susanna and Tash are all powering ahead and all should have completed their qualifications next year. Settings in the area have found it increasingly difficult to recruiting quality early years staff so we are fortunate to have such committed and dedicated staff. I have continued to be an active member of the Ashford collaboration which is a group of Managers and senior staff who meet half termly to support each other, organise training and generally share ideas. As part of the collaboration we are able to obtain money from the local authority. This term we will receive £750 and as a collaboration have decided to spend this supporting Cultural capital. We have purchased a range of new resources and staff have completing various training throughout the year including safeguarding, first aid, FGM and early years development. Unfortunately we had to let a member of staff go in July, however we were lucky enough to employ Rachel as a relief member of staff which has been a huge success. Rachel has a degree in Early years and has been a great asset to the setting. We have interviewing for two new members of staff this week. I’d like to thank the committee, staff parents and carers for their continued support and a huge thank you to the committee for organising an amazing funday the first since covid which raised a huge amount of money to support our setting.
Treasurer’s report – read by Tracy Gorham-Brown:
This report shows any increases or decreases in certain areas from last year to help us assess where we can tweak things in the future to remain sustainable. Fees The amount of fees paid increased significantly (£10K) from last year’s figures as we enrolled more children this year and stopped taking new children under the Free for 2 Funding Scheme. We also tried to accommodate some ad hoc requests for sessions where we had availability which boosted the fees this year. Funding Free Early Education funding from the KCC is the Preschool’s main source of income, with 6 payments received each year and the hourly rate for 3 and 4year old funding increased in April by the largest percentage for years. Again, we increased numbers wherever possible compared to last year as the new staff have now settled in and this is reflected in the income. Fund Raising and donations Fundraising efforts raised a fantastic £4505, our best ever year, boosted enormously by a fabulous Funday which was fundmatched by Barclays bank. Thank you to the committee for all their hard work this year! We raised a further £660 in uniform sales but had to buy new stock. Donations We received donations of £850 from the Ashford Early Years Collaboration, £500 from the Ashford Junior Football league and £30 from a parent. Interest The interest rate has increased significantly in the last financial year and the savings account monthly interest payment now shows a huge increase on last year. Other income We received a payment of £4500 for having 3 apprentices. £750 is the total of £50 deposits each new family paid to secure the places for September 2023. These deposits will be returned to funded children in September or £50 will be taken off the invoice for fee paying children.
Wages
The wages figure is higher than the previous year due the increase of National Living Wage and associated pay rises such as NI and the company pension scheme. This is to be expected as we apply the same pay increase across the whole staff structure to maintain salary boundaries. Rent
The rent rate has not increased this year and remains roughly the same as last year.
General running costs show an increase from last year, which is not unexpected with the current inflationary pressures and we have bought a new fridge freezer and washing machine. Gifts The staff were given gifts at Christmas and the end of the school year. Leaving gifts were bought for the children leaving us to start primary school. We also had 3 ex preschoolers who came as work experience students who received a voucher. Professional Memberships This includes our Ofsted annual fee, Music Licence, Bank charges, Sage accounts package, Accountant verification fees and Information Commission membership. We continue to use a payroll company for processing wages and pensions. We also paid for several DBS checks for new members of staff and the committee. Due to delays within the Early Years Alliance, our annual insurance premium and membership fee was not taken in July 2022, but in September 2022 so we paid 2 lots of insurance within the same year. Conclusion
The figures show we made a £9695.92 surplus this year compared to a £2815.66 loss last year. The loss last year was expected as we had to run at lower numbers of children due to the staffing issues. As the new members of staff have become more experienced, we have increased numbers of attending children, generating more income. We were looking at a £10K loss earlier in the year but the donations received, the exceptional fundraising and the prompt payment of the apprenticeship incentive scheme means the figures are better than we expected. It does however show that we need to look carefully at attending numbers, particularly funded children as the funding rate increases are not keeping up with the increases in National Living Wage. As 90% of our income is usually from funding and staff wages is by far our largest cost, it is a squeeze we are feeling in line with many small businesses but are confident that we will be able to adjust attendance figures and fee prices to remain financially sustainable.
Question Time : No questions were asked.
New Committee
As required, the current committee will now stand down and a new committee will be elected, by nomination & seconding.
The committee is needed to ensure the continuation of the preschool, requiring a Chairperson, Treasurer & Secretary, as well as other committee members - so please do consider taking on one of these roles.
The existing committee stood down.
Approved by the committee of Great Chart and Singleton Preschool on: ___
Signed: Dated:
Great Chart and Singleton Pre-School Minutes of the General Meeting held on Friday 13th October 2023 9.30am
Michelle Beerensson headed the meeting until the new committee members and officers were appointed:
New Committee
The following new Committee members were voted in:
Name of Committee Member |
Nominated by: |
Seconded by: |
|---|---|---|
| Simrat Rait | Michelle Beerensson | Amanda Oliver |
| Michelle Beerensson | Amanda Oliver | Kezia Newman |
| Katerina Hurry | Kezia Newman | Michelle Beerensson |
| Allison Ovenden | Michelle Beerensson | Simrat Rait |
| Emma Kolsteren | Amanda Oliver | Michelle Beerensson |
| Amanda Oliver | Michelle Beerensson | Simrat Rait |
| Gemma Ritchie | Emma Kolsteren | Amanda Oliver |
| Kezia Newman | Emma Kolsteren | Amanda Oliver |
| Jill Collins | Kezia Newman | Amanda Oliver |
| Lucie Pace | Amanda Oliver | Michelle Beerensson |
We have 10 elected committee members. TGB stayed in the meeting to take minutes.
Officer Roles:
| Officer Role | Name of Committee Member |
Nominated by: | Seconded by: |
|---|---|---|---|
| Co-chair | Kezia Newman | Michelle Beerensson | Amanda Oliver |
| Co-chair | Amanda Oliver | Kezia Newman | Simrat Rait |
| Secretary | Emma Kolsteren | Kezia Newman | Rachel Clark |
| Treasurer | Lucie Pace | Amanda Oliver | Emma Kolsteren |
The Secretary and Treasurer roles will be supported by the paid administrator TGB.
Committee member information sheets and data consent forms were handed out for immediate completion. TGB to change Charity Commission information w/c 16[th] October 2023.
TGB to email preschool parents regarding the committee changes.
MB to email Ofsted with EY3a information w/c 16[th] October 2023.
Whatsapp group to be set up with new committee to assist new committee members through the EY2 and DBS check procedures w/c 16[th] October 2023 and hopefully new members will be able to complete on-line at home. The existing committee agreed to help new members through the process and the preschool will pay for coffee if the committee need to meet up to do so.
TGB handed out an instruction letter on the EY2/DBS procedure plus hard copies of the Identity Checking Form which MB will need to check and submit to Ofsted.
New members to submit receipt of DBS cost and own bank details to TGB via the preschool email (approximately £8) which will be reimbursed by BACS immediately. DBS and EY2 should be completed as soon as possible and certainly within 2 weeks of this meeting.
SR to take new committee photos after the next committee meeting.
Committee members should do some online Safeguarding training and TGB to forward a link via email.
Chair Report : Please remember that everything we discuss is confidential.
If you need to be let out, please ask a member of staff.
If you need the toilet, please use the disabled toilets.
Welcome to our first committee meeting.
We had an amazing first years at co chairs. I just hope this year we can do just as good, if not better.
Myself and Kezia have been sitting on interviews with Michelle and Jane. I will let Michelle update you on any progress.
Thank you for joining our committee. We will take you mobile numbers and add you to 2 whatsapp groups. This is just a way of discussing stuff etc in between meetings.
I think meetings will stay on Fridays at 9.15am. If you have a child at the setting then providing staff and numbers allow, then they can go in and play while the meeting takes place. However, if you leave the building, you must take your child with you.
We require all members to be DBS checked, obviously we will all help you. Or we can meet up next door and do a group session. It’s about £9 but we will reimburse you. We would like these done ASAP! So if you could get them done by Monday 30th October, that would be fantastic. We also would like all members to have some safeguarding training. This is done online, if your own time. They usually take a max of 20 minutes each. Tracy will advise you of the site and which ones to complete. If we could aim to get this done by the 13th November, again this would be great.
We also received £33.61 from Kellyann Clover Photography. Thank you
Staff Report: Preparation for Xmas show has started and song sheets will soon go out. We will be going to Askes Court Young at Heart Club after half term and may do a preliminary Xmas show for both care homes. We will receive £750 from the Ashford Early Years collaboration. At a recent AETC meeting the parents of Oliver Steeper came in to discuss the “Life Vac” device, which is something they are fundraising for with the aim to provide one for all early years setting in Kent. It was decided that at £85 we were in a position to buy one rather than wait. We have been interviewing recently and have offered position to 2 people, Charlotte and Sarah, as MV will be leaving to take a full time position.
Treasurer’s report : During the month of September we technically made a £9K surplus as we received our first funding payment but as we started the year on a loss, it means we are currently running at a £1.5K deficit this financial year. As explained before this is to be expected at
this stage of the year. We have yet to receive any FF2 or EYPP funding and the second instalments of fee invoices are due this week.
September was a low wages month due to the summer holidays. We sold £210 of uniform and the fundraising receipts include stall bookings for the nearly new sale and the commission for the photo shoot. Training costs are for RC first aid course. We have returned nearly all the deposits for funded children and should have paid them all by next month (awaiting replies as to whether the family would prefer cash or BACS). A very straightforward month!
AOB : Committee photos to be taken after next meeting.
Newsletter : Donations of tissues and wet wipes, Thank you for coming to the AGM, NNS, new committee, Children in Need, Inclement weather, name bags please.
Nearly new sale : SR to produce a new Craft Sale poster. Need to check supplies of tea and coffee. TGB to send another email to parents. Helpers from 9 please, stall form 9.30, doors open at 10am. Will be holding 2 minute silence at 11am. Ask parents for donations of toys for a stall.
Christmas show: Hampers for raffle prizes. Bake off / Cake Sale.
Table and Chairs: To sell on Marketplace
Children in Need: Friday 17[th] Nov PJs all week for a donation.
Photos: Rose Clapton may be available! Looking at end of May.
Next meeting: Friday 17th November 2023 at 9.15am
Approved by the committee of Great Chart and Singleton Preschool on: _____
Signed:
Dated:
GREAT CHART AND SINCLETON PLAYCROUP FINANCIAL STATEMENTS FOR THE YEAR ENDED 31 JULY 2023 Charity Number: 295122
CRE.4T CHART AND sGLET0 PLAYGROUP FIIYANCIAL STATEP*lEIYTS FOR THE YEAR EIYDED 31 JULY 2023 TRUSTEES Michelle Beerens50n Lucie Pace Dr Simrat Rait Jane Kirby C.hdrlotte Swallow En] Ko15teien Syed Shahid Ke7.iu Newtnall (Chair) Amanda Oliver ACCOUNTANT Catt Accountancy Limited Chur¢h Barn, Westwell Court Wcstwcll A51ifoid Kettt TN25 4JX Page I
GREAT CHART AND SINGLETON PLAYGROUP INCOME AND EXPENDITURE ACCOUNT FOR THE I'EAK ELYDED 31 JULI. 21123 2023 2022 INCOME F&s KCC Fiinding Fund Raisin¥ Ashford EY CA)Ilatx)raiion th)nation£ 26.1.q2.90 109.777.85 16.70Q.00 97.810.03 2.217.32 850.00 5311.00 3,355.80 3.187.92 i..ioo.( 175QO KC'Q paNThenl Ouiings Parties Ini¢rtst Uniform sal¢9 Deposits foi. September Other incorne 873.34 750.00 4,580.00 et Incomc 14&806.37 J2Y.-147.24 EXPENDITUR Wa¥es Tax and Nl Pension tienetal running costs Rcni Craft and equipment Cafe Tel¢phon¢ 2nd int¢rn¢i Entertaiiin]enl Adertisin¥ Tr8ining tiifts Outings Fund rai%in8 Profession31 memberships and insurdnce Gardenin¥ Uttiforni Parties Was1¢ ¢()Ile¢iion Photocopier 107.049.47 3,430.77 7.033.78 2.201.91 Y,537.01 2.448.57 859.22 685.90 103,926.80 4,140.11 1.277. T5 9.821. 75 5.659 66 1,180.95 651 18 135.110 272.(10 1. 14n.00 301.84 4(X).00 417.2 449.76 451.83 2,629.36 2,012 19 1110.oo 1,016.94 254.00 589.80 219 17 655.20 237.54 139.110.45 132,J02.gU SurplusllDefe¢itl for tbe ve*r 9,695.92 (2.8/5.66) Gerterol Op¢nin¥) balance SurplusllDefecitl for the year 105,372.15 9,695.92 (2,11.f.66) 115,068.07 105.-172. 15 resented b Res¢Th'¥ ai¢uunt Curr¢nt a¢¢ount Cash in hand 108.576.21 3,708.71 2,783.15 86.202.87 JO.996.43 2.172.85 115,1)68.O7 In5.572.15 Page 2
Independent examiner's report on the accounts
Section A Independent Examiner’s Report
Report to the trustees/ Charity Name members of Great Chart and Singleton Playgroup
On accounts for the year 31 July 2023 Charity no 295122 ended (if any) Set out on pages 1-2 (remember to include the page numbers of additional sheets)
I report to the trustees on my examination of the accounts of the above charity (“the Trust”) for the year ended 31 / 07 / 2023 .
- Responsibilities and As the charity trustees of the Trust, you are responsible for the preparation basis of report of the accounts in accordance with the requirements of the Charities Act 2011 (“the Act”).
I report in respect of my examination of the Trust’s accounts carried out under section 145 of the 2011 Act and in carrying out my examination, I have followed the applicable Directions given by the Charity Commission under section 145(5)(b) of the Act.
Independent I have completed my examination. I confirm that no material matters have examiner's statement come to my attention (other than that disclosed below *) in connection with the examination which gives me cause to believe that in, any material respect:
-
accounting records were not kept in accordance with section 130 of the Act or
-
the accounts do not accord with the accounting records
I have no concerns and have come across no other matters in connection with the examination to which attention should be drawn in order to enable a proper understanding of the accounts to be reached.
- Please delete the words in the brackets if they do not apply.
Signed: Date: 09/08/2023 Name: Catt Accountancy Limited Relevant professional Association of Certified Chartered Accountants (ACCA) qualification(s) or body (if any): Address: Church Barn, Westwell Court Ashford, Kent TN25 4JX
October 2018
IER
1
Section B Disclosure
Only complete if the examiner needs to highlight matters of concern (see CC32, Independent examination of charity accounts: directions and guidance for examiners).
Give here brief details of any items that the examiner wishes to disclose .
October 2018
IER
2